


I Am the Resurrection and The Life

by wolfiefics



Series: Rising From the Pit [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Genre: But maybe some other time, Harley Quinn doesn't feature but she's AWESOME anyway, I'm kind of OTPing this pairing, Is the insanity induced by a dunk in the Lazarus Pit an improvement of Roman's mind?, Lazarus Pit, M/M, More comics verse than movies but really a mix, No Smut, mentioned Talia/Batman (Bruce Wayne), resurrection via magical chemicals, talia pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25139773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfiefics/pseuds/wolfiefics
Summary: Talia al Ghul watches with wary bemusement as her father brings his dead lover back to life.
Relationships: Ra's ah Ghul/Roman Sionis
Series: Rising From the Pit [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822576
Comments: 13
Kudos: 42





	I Am the Resurrection and The Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Orientalld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orientalld/gifts), [robinasnyder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinasnyder/gifts), [LittleLynn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLynn/gifts), [damngoodcoffee (eva_s)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eva_s/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Give Me Danger](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24974656) by [robinasnyder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinasnyder/pseuds/robinasnyder). 
  * Inspired by [Wild and Still](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25021387) by [LittleLynn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLynn/pseuds/LittleLynn). 
  * Inspired by [Твой лучший выстрел](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25000663) by [damngoodcoffee (eva_s)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eva_s/pseuds/damngoodcoffee). 



Talia watched her father enter their home in the desert surrounding Petra, Jordan, carrying what looked like a teakwood box. He set it down reverently, stroking the lid affectionately, before crossing the room to the bar and picking up a decanter of his favorite bourbon. He poured a finger of it and tossed it back like a heathen, pouring another and repeating the process.

If she didn’t know better, Talia would think her father was…disturbed. Since she could count on one hand the number of times she’d seen him such, she dismissed it. She spared the teakwood box a glance as she walked toward her father with a welcoming smile.

“You return,” she said in a subservient but strong voice. “I feared that Gotham would swallow you whole as it has my beloved.”

Ra’s Al Ghul turned to her, his eyes nearly fever bright and gave her a broad smile. “The Detective did not know I was there, my dear,” he told her with a nod of greeting, “but I made the acquaintance of a very interesting man.”

Talia quirked an eyebrow at that. Interesting man? It almost sounded like…

“He had an unfortunate run-in with one of the many lunatics that litter the ground in Gotham City like fallen autumn leaves, but I am certain that a swim will soon put him aright.”

It sounded like because it _was_. Her father favored women, many women usually, in his bed, but on the odd occasion a man peaked his sexual interest. They normally meant nothing and eventually, her father’s loyal man, Ubu, had to remove them permanently. No doubt this ‘interesting man’ would follow the same mold.

“Do I request a room be prepared for him when he arrives?” she asked smoothly, showing none of her resignation of her father’s odd quirks of fancy. Once she thought her beloved one of those, but it turned out Ra’s Al Ghul saw potential in Bruce Wayne as her mate than his own.

Her father cast a glance at the teakwood box. “I plan on dunking his remains in short order,” he told her. “As for his sleeping arrangements –“ Her father stopped and frowned.

Talia grew apprehensive at that frown. It looked like her father was uncertain as to what to do. As if he was considering whether or not this ‘interesting man’ had a preference or not. Ra’s Al Ghul’s lovers did as they were told, slept where they were told and were fucked where they were told. His will was absolute and his orders obeyed rabidly.

“He and I will discuss it once he is risen,” Ra’s decided and set down the small crystal tumbler his bourbon had been in. It clinked on the silver tray that held tumblers and the bourbon decanter.

“Of course, Father,” she said docilly.

Ra’s slanted a dark eyed look at her. “You seem surprised, Daughter,” he observed.

She hesitated but knew not to prevaricate. “You seem extraordinarily concerned with this man’s well-being, that is all. It is not usual of you.”

He thought about that and nodded. “You are correct.” He gave an honest, nearly excited smile. “He is the most intriguing thing,” he all but gushed, “Exciting, breathtaking, impossible to predict his fits and starts. Never have I been so challenged by a lover in recent memory.”

‘Interesting man, indeed,’ Talia thought to herself. Outloud, she inquired, “Is the box a gift to woo him then?”

Ra’s gave her a pained look and a hint of dampened rage simmered in his dark, dark eyes. “Those are all that remains of him. Some too-clever-for-her-own-good street urchin slipped a grenade upon his person before shoving him into the river.”

Talia’s mouth fell open in an ‘o’ and she turned to stare at the box. “Father,” she said hesitantly. “The Lazarus Pit-“ She stopped, swallowed, and continued. “I do not think it can restore with mere fragments.” When he gave her a sharp, reprimanding look, she added quickly, “Can it?”

“Come with me,” he invited, walking back to the box and picking it up with near holy reverence, “and see its miraculous power, my child.”

Knowing a polite order when she heard it, Talia followed. She pulled two sticks from a flower arrangement as she passed it and bound her hair up using them. The Lazarus Pit’s humidity, for lack of a better term, made her hair most unmanageable and she had a feeling she was along as more than just an audience.

Father and daughter traversed the many corridors that led down, down, down into the Lazarus Pit the ancient estate was built over. Smooth, manmade construction gave way to natural formations of a cave tunnel and at the end glowed a sickly green-yellow light.

She stepped inside the cavern and looked out at the nearly 1000-foot diameter pool of natural liquid that was essentially one of many Fountains of Youth searched for so diligently by men such as Alexander the Great and Juan Ponce de Leon. Only her beloved ever guessed that the mythical Prester John was actually Ra’s Al Ghul.

Her father walked to the edge of the pool where it was shallow, set the teakwood box down gently, sat on a bench and removed his shoes and socks. Talia opened her mouth to protest. Repeated, frequent dunking in the pit’s chemicals was detrimental rather than beneficial and Ra’s had received its nourishing powers only a few scant years ago.

As if sensing her alarm, Ra’s looked over at her and gave a small, reassuring smile. “All is well. I do not plan a full immersion of myself. I anticipate no ill effects upon me.”

Talia wasn’t reassured but nodded in acquiescence. Ra’s Al Ghul, one of the most aged, wise, and powerful men in the world, picked up his box of human remains and waded into the glowing green gook. Even over the sulphuric-smelling liquid he stood in waist-deep, Talia could smell the sickly-sweet horror that was rotted human flesh when he opened the box.

Unceremoniously, Ra’s Al Ghul dumped the contents, tossed the box back onto the ledge and buried his hands in the floating remains. Like a sculpture at his potter’s wheel, Ra’s manipulated the flesh and, to Talia’s horrified amazement, a human body began to form. Piece by piece, inch by inch, limb by limb, a human male emerged from the piecemeal remains he formerly had been.

Talia had to admit the man was beautiful. Dark hair, strong, athletic build, strong features with more than a hint of beauty coalesced into a full-grown man held gently, near worshipfully, in her father’s hands, buoying the newly made man in the simmering pool of chemicals.

Talia blinked in pure astonishment as the man’s eyes fluttered open briefly, when her father said with smug triumph, “Welcome back, baby.”

A shaking hand lifted and brushed her father’s beard in a butterfly soft touch. “I knew you wouldn’t let me go until you were done with me,” rasped the man.

Ra’s went to answer but his newly remade lover began to laugh. It was the maniacal, insane laugh of those recently dipped in the pit. Her father had many theories as to why there was this temporary bout of insanity but none of them mattered to Talia at the moment. Strong as he was, Ra’s Al Ghul was having difficulty man-handling the rebirthed man to the ledge and out of the pit.

Talia rushed forward and assisted, the man thrashing violently in her grip and calling her foul names that at any other time would have had her considering how best to make him disappear without her father the wiser and pay dearly for his abuse of her.

Dripping with chemicals, Ra’s wrapped his lover in his arms and whispered soothingly, “It is all right, my wondrous one. It will fade, it will pass.” Her father gave a wry twist of his lips as he looked up at her. “Not that sometimes you will be able to tell the difference.”

Talia scowled. ‘Great, not only a male lover to trip over and coddle but one who isn’t right in the head to begin with,’ she thought peevishly.

“I will instill in him that you and Nyssa are to be treated with utmost courtesy and respect,” her father said, somehow reading her mind in that uncanny way of his. “You have my permission to reinforce it if he steps out of line.” Ra’s gave the man a covetous smile. “He’s a bit flighty, you could say.”

Talia wisely said nothing to that but instead asked, “By what name is he called?”

“On the streets of Gotham, amusingly, Black Mask,” her father answered. “His given name is Roman Sionis.”

“Black Mask?” she repeated skeptically.

Ra’s shrugged. “You know as well as I do the denizens of Gotham City tend toward the melodramatic. Your beloved calls himself ‘Batman’ after all.”

She conceded the point with a tilt of her head. “Can you handle him now without my assistance?” she asked. “I sense you wish…a reunion.”

Ra’s gave her a fond smile and a nod. “Indeed. You are most wise and circumspect, my daughter. Leave us. Send Ubu in about an hour. Roman will be too weak to make the long trek to the main house. Despite his small stature, he is not light-weight.”

“As you wish, Father.” Talia rose and walked away.

Her father was an odd man, with odd ways, and odd thinking. His intelligence and capacity for love, loyalty, deceit and a dogmatic belief that mankind must be destroyed and brought back anew to save the world often brought him to odds with those he would normally have considered his equals and allies. That some small time ganglord captured her father’s attentions and affections made Talia wonder if perhaps her father had indeed dipped himself in the Lazarus Pit too often since the early 15th century.

The laughter of Roman Sionis died away and she paused to listen. Murmurs and then moans that were of distinct passion made her twitch and she continued on. She had a feeling Roman Sionis was going to make the home of Ra’s Al Ghul and family very interesting for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps she should sharpen her blade and load her gun. And do some research. A small communication between herself and her beloved detective regarding this Black Mask will help her to know the enemy better.

Manipulation, as she learned at her father’s knee, is the key to all relationships.

**Author's Note:**

> My favorite Batvillain is easily Ra’s Al Ghul. Hands down. I was SO disappointed in Nolan’s Ra’s, though Liam Neeson was his usual stellar self. Black Mask, however, has always been a two-bit villain, one step above Maxie Zeus (who likes to pretend he is, in fact, Zeus fallen from Olympus). I cackled like a loon the entire Birds of Prey movie. Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask/Roman Sionis was fantastic. Hell, the MOVIE was fantastic. I digress. Ra’s, being my favorite villain, is one who is a bit like Killmonger in the Black Panther movie. He has a legitimate grievance about the world but his methods to ‘fix it’ leaves much to be desired. Batman and Ra’s are constant thorns in each other’s sides but they respect each other’s skills and intelligence to a very high degree. Ra’s has lived many centuries and of that time, Bruce Wayne is one of the few he considers an equal, “The Detective”. Enough that he was willing to marry/mate his daughter, Talia, to Bruce to forge a new superior humanity. The recent artwork, and the fics inspiring and inspired by it, from Orientalld was a bit puzzling to me, putting Ra’s Al Ghul with Roman Sionis as a pairing. At first, I didn’t get it. I mean, yes, they were portrayed by two unfairly gorgeous men, but the character pairing had me baffled. I watched the Nolan movie once and never gave it another thought. That was not Ra’s Al Ghul. Done. But the fics and the art have been niggling at me over the course of the past two weeks so I thought I would throw my hand into the pairing. MY Ra’s is not Nolan’s Ra’s, though looks are inspired by Neeson’s look. Black Mask is such a bizarre ganglord anyway, McGregor’s take is perfectly acceptable to me. LOL! 
> 
> Yes. A pagan used a biblical quote for a fic title. Get over it. 😊


End file.
